Moments
by Purplefluffychainsaw
Summary: ORIGINALLY TITLED "THREADS" A series of moments between Fai and Kurogane during their journey.
1. Threads

**Title**: Threads

**Characters**: Fay and Kurogane

**Rating**: U/FFNet equivalent (I swear they're no more canon-y than they are normally!)

**Word count**: 1138

**Summary**: Fay catches Kurogane at something he didn't expect, and is delighted, much to Kurogane's dismay.

**Comments**: No spoilers. Kurogane and Fay are stuck in my head atm, so I attempted to write them out. I have no idea how IC they are. D: And unbeta'd because I'm a lazy bum and can't be arsed to find one, so please scream at me if you spot any mistakes. (If this doesn't work removing them from my brain/they insist on lurking, I might turn this into a series of drabbles of moments between them. Iunno. I should be working on other stuffs).

Also. Fay? Fai? I used Fay (since it seems to be official) but iunno. What do people think/say?

* * *

Kurogane growled as he looked up from the dark fabric of his cloak. He might not have heard Fay approaching, but he could sense the blonde's eyes on him.

"What?" He asked bluntly, stabbing the needle through and just missing his fingers.

"What are you doing?" Fay asked curiously, finally leaving the doorway and coming over to lean over Kurogane.

"What does it look like?"

"I didn't know you can sew, Kuro-pii."

Without even looking, Kurogane could tell that the idiot mage was smirking. It was in his voice, in the little chuckle that accompanied his words. He refused to look at the blonde as he sat down opposite him, and instead kept his eyes on the tear in his cloak. Still he felt the uncomfortable prickle of eyes on him as he worked, and soon he snapped. "What do you want?"

Almost immediately, Fay shoved his coat in front of him, knocking his hands and hiding his work so that Kurogane stabbed himself with the needle. He yelped, dropping his work and shaking his finger as he finally looked at Fay, glaring at him.

"Oops! Sorry, Kuro-rin!" He didn't sound apologetic at all, and Kurogane glared at him once more, before gathering up his cloak again, finding his needle, and getting back to work. Fay watched him for a moment before he held up his coat again. "It's got a tear in it, see?"

Kurogane looked up, and yes, the white fluffy monstrosity did have a rip in the hood's lining. It was probably from that damn white bun. "Well? Repair it yourself, I'm not doing your dirty work." He put the last stitch in, knotting the thread, and then holding it up to bite the excess off.

"But I don't know how to!" Fay whined.

Rolling his eyes, Kurogane folded his cloak roughly over his arm. "Then you should learn." As he rose to put it away, Fay bobbed in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.

"Is that an offer, Kuro-tan?"

Looking down at the mage, Kurogane considered it. No doubt if he didn't Fay would find plenty of reasons to bug him with any rips and tears he found in any of their clothes. Half an hour now to be able to brush him off any time Fay bounced up? "Sit down." He commanded.

Fay gave an excited whoop, and ducked past Kurogane to the bed, sitting down on it cross-legged and watching him expectantly. Kurogane shook his head at his childlike manner, and bent to pick up the abandoned sewing kit on the floor before joining him.

"Cut some thread and thread a needle with it." Kurogane told Fay, tossing the kit into his lap. Fay was quick, but even his nimble fingers weren't steady enough to get the thread through. "Lick the thread, it makes it easier."

"Yes, Kuro-sensei." Fay smirked at Kurogane as he licked the end of the thread.

Kurogane growled, and snatched it away. "Not like that. Watch." He dragged it between his lips, flattening it between them, then passed it back.

Fay clapped his hands together. "An indirect kiss!"

The ninja blushed and growled again, shoving the thread in his face. "Do you want help or not?"

"Aww, but Kuro-pii!" Fay pouted, but he'd taken the thread back, and was passing it through the eye of the needle. Nimbly, he caught the other end and dragged it through. "What next?"

Kurogane hesitated briefly, still fuming, and considering how best to explain the next action. "Pinch the lining so that you don't get the hood – not there, over the rip. Good, and now pass the needle through it at the beginning of the rip, but make sure you don't pull the thread all the way through."

At first, Fay tugged too hard, even with Kurogane's warning, but the second time he went a little slower, making sure to leave a tail of white thread along the lining.

"Right, now knot the end to the thread so that it doesn't pull out." Kurogane watched as concentration almost erased the smile on Fay's face, blue eyes watching with an intensity that Kurogane hadn't expected to see in them. Like that, he almost looked normal. "Keep passing the needle through over the tear. Try and keep close to it, but not so close that the stitches will pull at the fabric." Kurogane told him when Fay looked up at him again after putting his knot in.

For a long moment there was a silence of concentration, Fay keeping his eyes on his work, and Kurogane keeping just as close an eye over his shoulder. "Why have you never had to mend clothes before?" Kurogane asked, giving into curiously.

Fay gave a half shrug. "I was well looked after." There was something about the words that didn't seem to be right, a half-truth rather than a truth or a lie, but Kurogane was so used to Fay lying that he brushed it off – and besides which Fay had just completely messed up his line with his latest stitch (on purpose or not, Kurogane couldn't tell). He almost reached out to correct it himself, but then remembered that he was meant to be teaching Fay, not doing it for him.

"Take the thread out of the needle and use it to pull the stitch out." Kurogane offered.

"Why did you learn to sew?" Fay asked as he tugged the needle free and stabbed it at his hood.

"Not so rough! You don't want to pull the lining!' Kurogane reprimanded him quickly, putting a hand on Fay's hand and then taking it away. "Because I didn't have someone around to do it for me."

The bad explanation hangs in the air between them as Fay rethreads his needle and starts again, more carefully this time. Kurogane watches him while trying to think of something to ease the tension, but that's Fay's usual job, not his, and the blonde seems more interested in concentration on what he's doing with the needle than the silence. Kurogane could hear Fay's breathing from this close; loud over the silence, mingled with bird cries from the window and the noise of the city from even further away.

"That's it all sewn up. Do I tie off the end now?" Kurogane started a little at the sudden question, and hesitated. Fay noticed, and smirked at the ninja, and Kurogane glared at him in response.

"Obviously. Then cut it off close – on that end and the front, and put the threads, scissors and needles back." He rose, his lanky frame unfolding from the bed gracefully, and stalked off, not looking back.

Fay watched him go, head tilted, a thoughtful smile on his lips. A moment before the door slammed shut, he let out a soft, "thanks."


	2. Stars

**Stars**

**AN**: Thank you so much to everyone who favourited or commented on this. I appreciate it a lot.

I'm still not sure whether to use Fai/Fay. Bleh.

* * *

When Kurogane wakes up, the first thing he notices is Fai, sitting with his back against a tree, looking up to the stars. The almost full moon is lighting his hair, and it is easy to pick out the melancholy look on his face.

"You should get some sleep." Kurogane says, crossing over to him and sitting down beside him.

Fai looks at him and smiles. "At home, there's a legend that one day the white demon of time and dark demon of space will fight. If the white demon wins, time will speed up, and everyone and everything will die, but if the dark demon wins then space will take over and the whole world will be destroyed. Either way, the stars will go out and all will be dark."

Kurogane hesitates, unsure of what Fai means by telling him this. It isn't often that the blonde speaks about himself or his home without prompting.

"Does Kuro-san's Japan have a legend like that?" Fai asks.

Kurogane gives a little shrug. "I dunno. I never really bothered with that kind of stuff."

This time, Fai's smile reaches his eyes. "Kuro-pon has better things to do?"

"It's Kurogane, damnit!"

"Kuro-pon, Kuro-chii, Kuro-sama~." Fai hums, playfully.

"Kurogane!" He half shouts.

Fai puts a finger to his lips. "Shh, you'll wake the kids."

Kurogane glares at him, crossing his arms, but Fai is right. From beside the fire, Mokona untangles himself from Sakura's hold and pads over to them, settling himself in Kurogane's lap. "Aren't Fai and Kurogane sleeping?" He asks, through a yawn.

"In a little bit. We were looking at the stars." Fai says, smiling fondly at the creature.

Mokona looks up. "They're pretty."

Kurogane rolls his eyes at their childishness, and leans back against the tree. Mokona and Fai laugh at him, Mokona tugging on his cloak to draw his attention back to them.

"Kuro-chii doesn't agree with us." Fai says.

"I have better things to think about."

"Aww, that's sad." Fai says, and after a moment, when Kurogane looks at him, he realises that the mage seems to be completely serious.

"Mokona and Fai will have to enjoy them together alone then." Mokona sighs.

"You can't be together and alone." Kurogane points out.

"Of course you can." Fai says, smiling again. "How else can you be alone with a friend?"

"Fai and Kurogane were alone together before Mokona was woken by Kurogane's shouting."

Kurogane blinks, their madness briefly imposing on him. In a way, they were right. But at the same time… "That's wrong!"

"Oh? What else would Kuro-sama call it?"

"Kurogane!"

"Shh!" Mokona hisses, half laughing, with a paw on his lips. "Sakura and Syaoran are sleeping!"

Fai is also giggling, and he brushes a strand of hair from where it's fallen into his eyes. "Such a noisy man. What are we going to do with him?"

"It's late, so maybe we should put him to bed? Perhaps Kurogane is grumpy because it's past his bedtime."

"I only got up to tell Fai to go to sleep!" Kurogane is even more annoyed now, and he growls the words out.

Fai tilts his head as he looks at him. "But I might have gone to bed already if Kuro-chii hadn't started a conversation, and Mokona wouldn't be up at all."

"That's – that's not true!" Kurogane demands, the only reply he can think of.

"Aww, Mokona, Kuro-kun's so grumpy. He definitely needs to go to bed."

"Let's go to bed too. Mokona wants to sleep with Fai and Kurogane!" As if to emphasise his words, Mokona pulls the edges of Kurogane's cloak around him, curling up comfortably in the man's lap. "We can snuggle up together!"

"I don't want to sleep with both of you!"

They laugh again. "Kuro-chii seems to think that he has a choice." Fai stage whispers to Mokona, leaning closer to do so.

"We're going to sleep together whether he likes it or not!" Mokona whispers back, looking up at Kurogane pointedly.

Kurogane growls at them both, and shifts as though he is going to get up, but Mokona clings to him, and he doesn't get any further than shifting slightly. "You're both mad."

"Ah, but we're not the ones who don't appreciate the beauty of the stars."

"I never said I didn't like it!"

"Kuro-pon doesn't take the time to enjoy these things." Fai tells Mokona sadly. "Stars, legends, people."

"I do!" Kurogane shouts, frustrated by their continual teasing.

"Not so loud!" Fai and Mokona say together for a third time, and then break down in giggles. Kurogane glares at them, and is about to make an angry reply, when a noise behind them draws his attention.

Syaoran is shifting from where he is lying along side Sakura, and as he sits up he looks at them in sleepy confusion. "Is something wrong? Why are you all awake?"

"We were just talking. It's alright, go back to sleep." Fai says, smiling at the boy.

"Are you sure?" Syaoran looks more than half asleep despite the question.

Kurogane nods. "Go back to sleep."

They wait, watching as the boy lies back down, and listening as his breathing slows as he falls back asleep.

"You should sleep too." Kurogane tries again, trying to act calmly.

Fai is looking back up at the stars again, the moonlight reflecting in his eyes. At first, Kurogane thinks that he is going to refuse, but then he smiles. "Alright, Kuro-san." He slides himself up gracefully, using the tree as a prop, and Kurogane follows suit, Mokona half clinging to Kurogane's arm, half cradled, half clinging.

Beside the fire, Kurogane lies back down where he had been sleeping before, and is just starting to find a comfortable spot when Fai lies down beside him. "What do you think you're doing?" He whispers, aware of Sakura and Syaoran's closeness.

"We're going to sleep together, remember?" Kurogane can hear the smug smile in Fai's voice.

"Yay~!" Mokona exclaims, clambering over Fai's side so he can snuggle up in the blonde's arms.

"I didn't say you could!"

Fai laughs softly, and Kurogane can feel the movement with the mage this close. "No, you didn't." He agrees, but still snuggles closer, leaving Kurogane unsure where to put his hands.

After a moment of putting up with Kurogane's uncomfortable shifting, Fai takes Kurogane's arm and drapes it over his side, holding onto his arm so that they're both hugging the already sleeping Mokona to Fai's thin chest.

Shifting just for a moment longer, Kurogane tries to deny that it's comfortable as much as it is unfamiliar to lie like that.

"Goodnight, Kuro-pon." Fai purrs.


End file.
